Microsoft’s chief operating officer, Kevin Turner, took to the
stage at the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference earlier today
to stir up the crowd and discuss Apple’s idea of a post-PC era.
“Apple makes great hardware,” admitted Turner, “the reality is in
the OS we see things differently.” Turner went on to discuss the
company’s upcoming Mountain Lion operating system and some mixed
press reaction to the future of OS X. “We believe that Apple has
it wrong,” says turner. “They’ve talked about it being the post-PC
era, they talk about the tablet and PC being different, the
reality in our world is that we think that’s completely
incorrect.”

Turner then went on to describe this new era as a “PC+” period,
one that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates predicted back in 1999.
“We actually believe Windows 8 is the new era for the PC plus,”
says Turner. “We believe with a single push of a button you can
move seamlessly in and out of both worlds. We believe you can have
touch, a pen, a mouse, and a keyboard.”

Apple’s post-PC vision isn’t about input devices — mice, keyboards, pens, whatever. It’s about exposed complexity. Tim Carmody argues in a follow-up at The Verge that Apple’s “post-PC” and Microsoft’s “PC-plus” aren’t that far apart. I think that remains to be seen. With the iPad, Apple has eliminated large amounts of complexity. With Windows 8, it remains to be seen whether Microsoft has eliminated complexity, or merely hidden it behind a Metro veneer.

I think the Steve Jobs quote Microsoft should be focused upon far predates this post-PC stuff. Go back to 1997:

“We have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft
has to lose,” Jobs said. “We have to embrace the notion that for
Apple to win, Apple has to do a really good job. If others are
going to help us, that’s great. Because we need all the help we
can get. […] The era of setting this up as a competition between
Apple and Microsoft is over.”